Surprise, Dear!
by Ghost Hand
Summary: Geez, that title sucks. Anywho, Pritkin and Mircea teamed up against Cassie, who does not want to be smothered by them or their forms of protection. But she meets a strange woman who she finds out is... Mircea's daughter? Takes place at the end of HtM. Sorry for any grittiness, been awhile since I read the books. Rating for language, to be on the safe side.


Wow, I can't believe I actually started this. Now let's see if I can finish it. XD It's gonna be really short, two to three chapters at most. Also, before you say anything, I just wanna point out that dhampirs are extremely uncommon, can walk around in the sun, have a beating heart, and Dory's got some sort of defense on her at all times. So, it would (most likely) be pretty hard to tell what she was on the spot, unless you were really good or knew what she was.

* * *

Cassandra Palmer was, yet again, running for her life. This time, it was some of her most fearsome adversaries yet: Pritkin and Mircea.

Of course, what was a day without somehow managing to piss Pritkin off? But managing to bring a headache to the calm and cool Senator Basarab was a special talent of hers, and getting both into a bad mood at the same time- that's serious skill right there.

It all started when the mage let it slip that Cassie had done more than just inhabit his body when they switched- she'd customized it. In her defense, she argued that quite thorough manscaping had been in order, and she wasn't going to go running around in a body that was covered in sweat-clinging hair. Needless to say, neither said hairy man (now presentably shaved) nor her boyfriend found this an acceptable excuse. And so she'd shifted the hell out of there and was trying to find a safe space to hunker down in for a few millennia.

Jonas had been too busy to claim an impromptu lesson, and heaven knows Casanova didn't want her anywhere near the hotel. That poor place had suffered so much damage in just the past few weeks, it was hard to tell what was supposed to be what anymore. So it was to the city with Cassie.

She trudged up and down the streets, trying to get some distance between her and the boys while not getting lost in Vegas. Finally she figured she may as well be going _somewhere_, since they'd likely find her soon anyway. She had the munchies, so she figured she'd find a coffee shop or something.

To her luck, there was a nice café a little ways off the Strip. Cassie grabbed some change from her purse- avoiding another credit card she found from Mircea- and ordered a latte and the least healthy donut she saw. 'If Pritkin could see this, he'd have a heart attack,' she thought amusingly as the grease and frosting overflowed in her hand. It was delicious.

The place was pretty quiet, with only a few customers. Most likely they were there to get out of the heat than anything else. The only oddball was a woman with short, magenta-dyed hair wearing a leather jacket, reading a paper and sipping coffee in the corner. It had to be boiling in that thing! But either she didn't notice or she had sweat glands of steal, because she just calmly continued on reading and drinking. It made Cassie hot just looking at her, so she didn't.

After finishing her dose of junk food, the blonde went into the bathroom to wash her hands. While she was drying off, her cell rang. Quickly wiping one hand, she took it out and frowned as she saw who it was. Against her better judgment, she pressed the button to talk.

"Cassie, where are you?"

She snorted. "What, you're not tracking me through the phone right now?"

There was a pause on the other end, confirming her assumption. "Look, Mircea, it was a one-time thing. I don't know what you two are upset about; Pritkin got the shave he needed, and it doesn't really affect you at all."

The master vampire sighed. "There's more to it than that. But we'll discuss this later; I'm sending a car to pick you up now. Please, don't try to run away again. It's not safe to be out right now."

Cassie was becoming very frustrated with the babying. Hadn't they just talked about this? "Why? Because your little cronies won't be able to handle the sunlight so they can't keep me under lock and key? Sure, I'll stay put and wait to be thrown back in the damned hotel room." She rolled her eyes, though he couldn't see it through the phone. "I mean, come on! It's daylight! A bunch of the 'threats' don't even come out around now. And besides, I can handle myself pretty well."

Okay, maybe that was a bit of an overstatement. Particularly given how many times she'd needed rescuing recently. But she was training hard, and dammit if she didn't want some alone time!

"Cassandra…" Mircea's voice took on that dangerous tone again.

"Okay, well, enough for me to get away from the bad guys. If I run into trouble, I'll just pop back there. How does that sound? Deal?"

Another short pause. She could almost see him rubbing his chin. "I'm still sending a few body guards. Just as a precautionary measure."

"Crap." Cassie cursed and quickly snapped the phone shut. She shoved it in her purse and stormed out of the bathroom. Why must he always do this to her? She was Pythia! Not some helpless little clairvoyant without a clue.

It seemed the chick with the leather had left just ahead of Cassie. She was just a few feet in front of her, walking away. Cassie stared at her long coat and already her mouth started to feel dry when she caught sight of a familiar limo down the road.

'Shit shit shit shit shiiiiiit.' She bit her bottom lip then looked again at the woman in the coat and did some fast thinking. There was no way she could be normal, managing to walk in this heat and that coat. Which meant she was either crazy, or had some weapons to conceal. Judging by how there were no obvious bulges, it was probably enchanted like Pritkin's, which meant she was part of the magical community. Since she was kind of a big deal now and not the mages' enemy, that meant she could possibly ask for protection, right?

She took the chance and ran up to her. The woman instinctually spun around, arms up and ready to fight. Cassie held a hand out. "Wait! Before you hit me, can you hide me? Just for like, three minutes!"

The woman cocked an eyebrow, obviously surprised that a random stranger would come up and ask her this. But luckily, Cassie didn't look like she could hurt a fly with her cherubic looks. "Uh. I don't know you."

Cass looked wildly from the broad, muscular woman to the rapidly approaching car. "You look strong and right now, you're the only thing I got! I can probably give you something; I don't really care what at this point, just hurry!"

The woman turned her head, seeing what had the blue-eyed innocent so worried. Finally, she made up her mind and nodded.

"Fine." With that, she dragged the stouter female into a nearby alleyway. She opened an unlocked door and ran inside, then slammed and locked it shut. Looking around, she found the door to the back room and pulled the other inside, also locking that door. "We should be safe in here."

Cassie frowned; it wouldn't take much at all for the vamps to break through two doors once they smelled she was there. "What makes you say that?"

The woman smiled. "I know the owners. They uh, like to keep a few secrets to themselves, so they made this place pretty well built to make sure those secrets stay hidden."

The blonde inspected the door, and indeed felt a wave of power emanating from it. "So they use a bunch of charms, huh? Is it enough to throw people off the trail?"

"It's not just charms, it's some pretty powerful stuff- hey, how do you know about that? You look like a norm to me."

Cassie looked down at herself. Well, she had used a technique Jonas had been teaching her to conceal her power. It was useful when she wanted to walk around without a giant power signature saying "hey, Pythia right here! Come and get it", but she found it was also handy for hiding the mark that tagged her as Mirceas'. While she was still getting over the fact that he truly felt for her, she didn't exactly want everyone and their mom to know they were married- at least by vampire terms. It was a whole other set of trouble, mainly from the dirty and vicious looks she'd received from a number of Mircea's fanclub. Not something she thought she could deal with just yet.

"Nah. I'm a clairvoyant."

The woman snickered. "Really? As in, seeing the future and stuff? I never met many that were real, or sane. How good are you?"

Now it was Cass's turn to raise an eyebrow. So, she hadn't recognized her from the newspapers? That was actually… a relief. Someone who didn't want to kill her for being Pythia. Yet. "Pretty good, I guess."

The woman leaned forward. "So, can you predict _my_ future?"

Cassie crossed her arms, telling her the same thing she'd had to tell others many times before. "I can't exactly do it on call; it usually comes and goes."

"Ha. I knew it. Okay, anything you can do to help you along or something? Got any magic tricks?"

Cassie tapped her chin. "Well, I do have this tarot deck, but it's more of a pain in the ass than anything else."

"Cool. Let's see it."

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you." The blonde rummaged around in her purse, searching for the familiar worn edges of the enchanted cards. But her hands didn't brush them as expected. She looked once, twice, and even began pulling stuff out of her purse before pinching the bridge of her nose. "Ah, crud. I probably left them in the room before running off. Oh well, the boys'll have some fun if they decide to be nosy," she muttered, referring to the grouchy vampire guards that had the misfortune of hotel room duty during daylight hours. Just imagining them jumping out of their skin should they touch the deck and activate it's booming voice of doom made her smile.

"What a shame. So, mind if I ask who or what you're hiding from? That looked like _Dante_'s limo, if I'm not mistaken. Casanova after you for a debt?"

Cassie laughed. "No, I'm hiding from my boyfriend. We're staying at _Dante's_, and he's a bit Casanova on the other hand would love it if I just left him alone for even a day. Besides, I prefer to pay back my debts as soon as possible." _Although being together with his boss does seem to eliminate the need for that_, she added silently. She leaned against the wall, making herself comfortable while they waited out the vamps.

The lady grinned. "I hear ya. Whenever I go to see him, all he does is bitch about the damage I'll do to him or his precious casino. Can't ever be just happy to see me."

"Ha ha, same here! It's like I'm a bad omen or something; he looks like his head's going to explode from imagining what trouble I'm gonna bring each time." Admittedly, one of her latest 'oops' involved crashing a ship into the side of the building, but it would be nice to get a 'hi, how are you' once in a while.

The woman cocked her eyebrow. "No way. You can rile up lover-boy like that, too? Ha, you must be tougher than you look. What's your name, anyway?"

Should be okay to give her name to someone who knows (and irks) Casanova, right? "I'm Cassandra Palmer. Cassie for short."

The woman put her hand on her hip. She looked like she was thinking, as if the name sounded somewhat familiar. Which, to Cassie's cause, was not helpful. Stupid fame. Regardless, the strangely dressed female smiled back at her and extended her hand.

"My name's Dorina, but you should call me Dory."

* * *

**Edit****:** Oops! Made a mistake. Thanks anon for pointing that out. ^_^


End file.
